


last night to be the end

by brightsmoon



Series: dear, home. [3]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Bittersweet, Character Death, Dark Magic, Deity Rayla, Elf/Human Relationship(s), Execution, F/F, Forbidden Love, Goddesses, Goodbye Sex, Heavy Angst, Immortality, Implied Sexual Content, Spells & Enchantments, Summoning Circles, Unhappy Ending, Witchcraft, raydiaweek2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-25 23:57:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20034472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightsmoon/pseuds/brightsmoon
Summary: She's spoke the language of the gods and the dead before but saying goodbye is the hardest thing she's ever done.RaydiaWeek2019 - Day Three ; Dark / Primal Magic





	last night to be the end

**Author's Note:**

> for the record this was supposed to be fluffy and a little crack-y with claudia mistakenly summoning moon goddess rayla and they fall in love but my muse took me in a,,, ,Different Direction. i apologize in advance.
> 
> is this a vent-piece at the core? who knows - not the author that's for damn sure.
> 
> title ; [before you go](https://genius.com/Exes-before-you-go-lyrics) by exes

There's a knock at the door and unheeded, Claudia's face splits into a smile. Wiping her hands on her apron, she moves towards the front of the cottage.

"Coming!"

Handle cold underneath her palm, she pulls it open. "Hello, love."

_"Oh,_ how I've missed you," the goddess murmurs and pulls the woman into a kiss immediately. Claudia melts - no matter how many times she kisses Rayla, she's never used to it. She's never lived in the sky, dress made of constellations and night wishes but the deity in her arms has. Rayla tastes like a cool summer night, wishing on a star, well-chilled water straight from her palms to her lips.

Even now, descended from her throne, the goddess seems to glow. High in the sky, the moon illuminates the pale purple eyes Claudia loves so much.

Claudia pulls back first. "It's barely been a day," she murmurs, tracing the marks beneath the deity's eyes.

Once, as they lay in bed and Claudia watched how Rayla's pale skin glowed in the full moon's light that shone through the open window, Rayla had told her why she had markings all over her human body - _wishes,_ she called them. The markings beneath her eyes were tears from all the mortals who wished and it never came true.

She had been quiet before pulling the woman close and kissing her as if the world was revolving only for them, in that moment. Claudia had mapped the other constellations that dotted her skin as if freckles - dark purple, silver, blue. She had pressed her lips to every one and watched as Rayla, _goddess of the moon_, shivered beneath her.

Claudia had never loved a mistake more.

It hadn't been her intention, summoning the goddess of the sky that night so many moonrises ago. She had been flipping through the pages of her spellbook when her elbow bumped the moon moth wing jar, which fell into the cauldron.

She hadn't caught them in time and Rayla had risen from the smoke that bubbled over the side, voice booming but _oh,_ so soft.

Rayla holds her like she's a star hung in the sky by her own hand.

"Even a day is too long, my love," she murmurs and leans forward to rest their foreheads together. Claudia breathes in the scent of her godly lover and tells herself for the thousandth time that tonight will be the night. "A revolution of the sun keeps up apart too greatly."

Claudia shushes her, tugging her into the cottage. The door closes somewhere behind them but Claudia barely hears it, too wrapped up in the cold hands wrapped around her waist, lips on her own. She feels too big yet too small for her body.

She doesn't say a thing. She's a coward.

Later, the deity's white hair like moonlight spills across Claudia's pillow as if midnight in a courtyard. Absent-mindedly, she runs her fingers through the waves, taking care to avoid nicking her fingers on the mauve horns that twist from the crown of Rayla's head.

She's learned the hard way.

"Come back," Rayla murmurs, hand coming to cup her cheek. Claudia rests her hand over the back of the deity's and unheeded, tears slip from her eyes.

Rayla's eyes are sad, knowing. "Come back to me."

Leaning forward, she kisses away the crystalline rivers. Claudia finds she can't stop the flow.

"I am here," she chokes out. "I'm here, darling."

If possible, the goddess' eyes grow sadder, dimmer. They no longer shine and the glow of her skin seems to fade as well. Claudia cries harder - she cannot help it.

She hates herself for doing this now. She hates herself for not doing this sooner.

"You are not. Come back to me."

Claudia can't seem to breathe. Rayla holds her in all the ways Claudia knows she will miss. She doesn't have to say it, she doesn't have to ruin this moment.

She can't hold it back.

"They will come," she shudders out, clutching at the blankets that wrap around both of their bodies, legs tangled, being and godly. Deity and human.

Immortal. _Mortal._

"I will stop them," Rayla promises fervently, wiping away the tears. She wishes she could catch them all. The same tracks on her cheeks fall down Claudia's but they're clear as a night rainstorm.

Not the fabric of midnight, like hers.

Claudia is shaking her head no before her lover is finished. "No," she chokes out, "you _can't."_

"I am a goddess. I will stop them."

"Then what?"

Rayla's eyes widen ever-so-slightly and Claudia knows, mourningly, that she's asked the one question there's no satisfactory answer to.

She cups the deity's face in her own, kisses the tip of her nose. "You can't keep them away forever," she murmurs and rests their foreheads together. "You can't stay - you know that. You have to_ go."_

_"No,"_ Rayla insists, searching her face as she holds Claudia's neck in her cold hands. Shivering with the knowledge this is the last time she'll feel this, Claudia can't help but smile.

"You are immortal," she whispers. "I am not. You have to go."

"I won't leave you."

Claudia's smile is watery, shaky at best. "I wish I could go, too, but I can't. We both know that."

Dawn will come inevitably and with it will come the villagers, torches and pitchforks in hand. They will bash down her door, drag her from her sheets, tie her to a stake in the middle of town, set her spellbooks and fine gifts from her lover ablaze after they do she.

"Knowing what will happen is a curse," Rayla cries. "I will not leave you. Let me stay."

Claudia cries harder.

"Goodbye, Rayla."

Then she releases her. She knows, deep in her chest, that letting go of the bodily form of the deity will not dismiss her - Claudia does not hold that power - but her words _do._

_Nruter,_ the dead word slithers from her tongue.

Her heart breaks all over again at Rayla's face. She summoned the goddess.

She can send her away.

In the moment before Rayla dissipates before her eyes like smoke, she reaches out. Claudia closes her eyes, pretends she can feel the fingertips that graze her cheek cold as the North tempest, light as a moonbeam.

"I love you," she murmurs. High in the sky, the wind howls as a beloved does at the loss of their lover.

Claudia slides her eyes close for a single moment before rising. There is much to do before sunrise and she doesn't have time to waste.

She will burn her things before they can. She will overturn her workshop, dip the pages of her spellbook in animal fat she's kept in the cabinet after every meal and light them aflame. The fire will lick at the sky, sending sparks upwards, each one whispering _I'm sorry. Let me go._

Rayla will watch, from the heavens, as every part of her lover burns.

At dawn, as red streaks across the sky like angry tendrils of death reaching for Claudia, she will watch from the constellations as the cottage door is kicked down, torches touched to the walls. She'll howl and cry as her lover is dragged, silent and willing, from their bedroom.

Into town. Arms tied behind her back, skirts streaked with charcoal, an altar of bundled wood at her feet.

She will not be worshipped as Rayla is at her altar.

"Witch!" The townspeople cry. "Mark of the devil!"

Eager flames will lick at dry wood. They will catch as Rayla's feelings did, that night at the last stroke of midnight, staring down into the wide green eyes of a mage. Witch.

_Lover._

Claudia will raise her eyes to the heavens. She will burn quietly, smiling, returning home, waiting arms wide.


End file.
